9 years after bus accident, relief to kin of 29 victims

NEW DELHI: A bus accident in

Himachal

Pradesh had claimed 13 lives and injured several others in 2007.

This happened due to the negligence of the

driver

who had a

fake licence

. Now, a city

court

has ordered

compensation

to the families of 29 victims, ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 14 lakh.

The court directed an insurance company, owner of the bus and driver—who managed to save himself by jumping off the bus as it fell into a valley in Himachal—to pay the damages. It also stressed on the need to stop the issuance of fake licences to drivers, saying many precious lives would be saved if that’s done.

The incident had occurred on June 20. Among those killed were women and children. The driver, Raj Singh alias Nasir Ali, had forged a licence of Agra transport authority. Considering this, MACT judge Anoop Kumar Mendiretta said there was a need to verify licences issued by authorities outside Delhi. “...these need to be connected to a centralised server where the verification report can be obtained online to check the scam of fake licences,” the judge said.

Forwarding its order to the Delhi government and Delhi Police, the court directed the authorities to take steps to curb the issue of fake licences and file an action-taken report in the court within a month. The court said that though the accident took place in Himachal Pradesh, the court had the jurisdiction to decide the matter as some of the petitioners were residents of Delhi, and the driver and bus owner Harvinder Singh were based out of Delhi. It also asked the police to register a case against Singh and file an ATR within a month.

The insurer, New India Assurance Company Limited, had said that it couldn’t be asked to pay compensation as it wasn’t aware that the driver had a fake licence. The firm had also said that the bus had violated the MV Act by carrying more passengers than its maximum capacity of 30.

But the court said the firm failed to prove that the bus was loaded beyond capacity.